There is no co-pending utility patent application. There may be a co-pending design patent application.
This invention was developed with private funds and there was no federally assisted fund.
This section is not applicable to this subject matter.
1. Field of the Invention
The genesis of this invention is the training of a dog to sniff a package or an object. A dog may sniff a package or object to determine if there be an undesirable material such as marijuana or cocaine or heroine or other material such as gun powder to name a few to be present. In addition to these materials a dog may be asked to sniff a package or an object to determine if it be a clothing of an individual subject to search and rescue or may be certain foods.
One of the ways of training a dog to sniff a package or an object and to identify the object as having a certain material is for the trainer to place such an object as a ball in a container. The ball may or may not have the undesirable material. For example, say that there are six containers and three of the containers have such an object with a certain odor or characteristic and three of the containers do not have an object with the certain odor or characteristic. The dog goes to the first container and sniffs the container. If the object or ball does not have that undesirable material or material to be identified the dog will go to the second container. Assume that the second container has the material to be identified. The dog sniffs the second container and recognizes the odor and continues to sniff and may use the paws to scrape the container thereby indicating that the dog recognizes the odor.
The trainer to reward the dog removes said object or ball from the container and lets the dog have the object or the ball. Certain dogs like to hold object or ball in the mouth.
Prior to this invention the trainer would go to the container and remove the ball and give it to the dog. I consider one of the undesirable aspects of this procedure is that the dog associates such an object with the trainer and does not associate, only, the object or ball with the material to be recognized.
In order to divorce the situation whereby the dog associates the ball or such an object with the trainer I have invented the subject invention.
(2) Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98
The applicant does not know of related prior art.
The invention comprises a container for said object or the ball. There is a movable plunger barrier for restricting the movement of said object and/or said ball from the container. There is mechanical mechanism and electric circuitry for moving the plunger barrier to allow said object or said ball to move from the container so that the dog can bite into said object or said ball and receive the reward or be able to mouth said object and/or ball and or paw said object and said ball. The plunger is controlled from a remote position and the trainer is not near the plunger barrier and is not near the dog and/or said object and/or said ball. In this way the dog does not associate the ball with the trainer. The dog associates the ball or said object on its own and free of the trainer.